The Viennese coffee houses worth your time are the ones where the room still does the work. Café Sperl and Café Schwarzenberg keep the grand nineteenth-century style. Café Hawelka is best at night, with warm Buchteln, and Café Jelinek pours a quiet Melange in the 6th district. Around them are other places that take cake or coffee seriously, from the pensioner bakers at Vollpension to the filter bar at Kaffemik.
The short list
9 places, in the order they appear below.
- 01Café SchwarzenbergEinspänner and Sachertorte by the window1st (Ringstraße)
- 02Café SperlGuglhupf, billiards, newspapers6th
- 03Café HawelkaWarm Buchteln in the evening1st
- 04Café JelinekTopfenstrudel in a quiet room6th
- 05goldener papageiAfternoon Melange in a local café2nd (Leopoldstadt)
- 06Café VollpensionHome-style cakes from pensioner bakers4th
- 07le petit jeudiSaturday croissants20th (Brigittenau)
- 08KaffemikFilter coffee7th (Neubau)
- 09Carl Ludwig CafeBreakfast and working through the day4th
Which classic coffee houses in Vienna are worth the hype?
Three of the old rooms still earn their reputation. Café Schwarzenberg, opened in 1861, is the oldest Kaffeehaus on the Ringstraße and makes its pastries on site. Café Sperl dates from 1880; its billiard tables are still in play and its newspapers still hang on wooden holders. Café Hawelka became the meeting point for Vienna’s postwar artists and intellectuals after the family reopened it in 1945.
At Schwarzenberg the Einspänner (black coffee under whipped cream) comes in the traditional silver holder, and the window seats face the fountains on Schwarzenbergplatz. We’d order our Sachertorte here. It’s barely distinguishable from the one at the Hotel Sacher, and it costs less and comes in a quieter setting.
Café Schwarzenberg
Hours: Mon–Fri 07:30–23:30 · Sat–Sun 08:30–23:30
Address: Kärntner Ring 17, 1010 Wien, Austria
Sperl on Gumpendorfer Straße has hardly changed since it opened. Order a Melange and it arrives made correctly, no special instructions needed. In the afternoon, take a paper from the rack and have a Guglhupf with your coffee. Nobody will hurry you out.
Café Sperl
Hours: Mon–Sat 07:00–22:00 · Sun 10:00–20:00
Address: Gumpendorfer Str. 11, 1060 Wien, Austria
Most of Hawelka’s appeal is the room: dark wood, smoke-stained walls, elderly waiters who remember their regulars. Time your visit for the Buchteln, sweet yeast dumplings filled with plum jam, baked each evening and served warm. They go fast once they leave the kitchen. During the day, the tables lean heavily towards tourists.
Café Hawelka
Hours: Mon–Thu 09:00–00:00 · Fri–Sat 09:00–01:00 · Sun 10:00–21:00
Address: Dorotheergasse 6, 1010 Wien, Austria
Where do the Viennese go for a quiet Melange away from the tourists?
Head a little out of the first district. In the 6th, Café Jelinek is a Kaffeehaus the neighbourhood has kept to itself for years, with its original marble tables and old-school service. Over in Leopoldstadt, goldener papagei on Praterstraße draws a reliably local crowd and gets good afternoon light.
Jelinek’s cake counter sticks to classics done well, and the staff leave you alone until you want something. Skip the Apfelstrudel. Order the house Topfenstrudel instead: its filling is far lighter than the versions in the big cafés along the Ringstraße.
Goldener papagei feels as if it has been on the street for twenty years. It hasn’t. Expect seasonal pastries, and the front of the café catches the sun later in the day. The local order is an afternoon Melange with curd-cheese strudel, and if someone has the table in the front window, it’s worth a short wait.
goldener papagei
Hours: Mon–Sun 08:00–19:00
Address: Praterstraße 17, 1020 Wien, Austria
Where can you get the best cake with your coffee in Vienna?
For cake that tastes home-made, go to Café Vollpension in the 4th district, where retired pensioners bake from family recipes and serve the coffee themselves. For pastry from a different tradition, head to le petit jeudi in Brigittenau. Its croissants have lamination that would hold up in Paris.
Vollpension is a social enterprise, and nothing about the grandmother-kitchen feel is styled. Regulars order the Topfenkuchen (quark cheesecake) without reading the menu; the Marillenkuchen is the apricot alternative. Weekday afternoons are calmer, and the bakers are often still around to tell you what they made that morning.
The owner of le petit jeudi trained in France and came back with firm views on butter. The coffee comes from a specialty roaster. Go on a Saturday morning, and go early: the croissants are gone well before noon, the almond ones first. Opening days are limited, so check the card before crossing town.
le petit jeudi
Hours: Mon 09:00–15:00 · Tue–Wed closed · Thu–Fri 12:00–15:00, 18:00–22:00 · Sat–Sun 09:00–15:00
Address: Traunfelsgasse 1, 1200 Wien, Austria
Where to find good specialty coffee in Vienna?
Vienna’s newer coffee bars sit comfortably alongside the Kaffeehäuser. Kaffemik in Neubau is a small roastery and bar with a rotating filter menu, and the city’s serious coffee drinkers treat it as a fixture. Carl Ludwig Cafe in the 4th keeps the Kaffeehaus spirit but runs a stronger coffee program than its heritage look suggests, with food from breakfast into the evening.
The filters rotate between roasters from across Europe and Kaffemik’s own roasts. The team explains the brewing without turning it into a lecture. We’d take the filter of the day over an espresso (of the two usually on offer, the cheaper one is often the more interesting bean) and add a chocolate-chip cookie. In warm months, the pedestrian Zollergasse outside becomes the terrace.
Kaffemik
Hours: Mon–Fri 08:00–18:00 · Sat 10:00–18:00 · Sun 11:00–17:00
Address: Zollergasse 5, 1070 Wien, Austria
Locals treat Carl Ludwig as a place to work as much as to eat and drink, from morning on. The interior is considered without being precious. At breakfast the eggs beat those at most Kaffeehäuser, because they source good ones. Order them scrambled with chives.
Carl Ludwig Cafe
Hours: Mon–Fri 07:30–19:00 · Sat 10:00–17:00 · Sun closed
Address: Favoritenstraße 7, 1040 Wien, Austria
These cafés are made for lingering, so plan one or two a day and forget the checklist. Several keep short or uneven hours (le petit jeudi closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Carl Ludwig on Sundays, and Hawelka’s best hour comes late), so check each card before you set out.
